


Arrows of Fate

by AccioLibros



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Jealousy, POV Bellamy, POV Bellamy Blake, Pining, Sexual Content, Soulmates, Torture of Lincoln, but also follows canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-27
Updated: 2015-08-28
Packaged: 2018-04-17 13:47:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4668923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AccioLibros/pseuds/AccioLibros
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the residents of the Ark turn 15 a silver mark appears on their bodies. One other person has that same mark. That person is their soulmate. Bellamy hasn't found his match when he arrives on Earth, but when he notices the mark on his co-leader's hip, he knows she's the one. But he can't possibly be in love with the Princess.</p><p>***NOMINATED FOR THE 2016 BELLARKE FANFICTION AWARDS FOR <a href="http://bellarkefanfictionawards.tumblr.com/post/148217546558/congratulations-marauders-groupie">"BEST SOULMATES FICTION"</a>***</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story pretty much follows canon. I've, of course, incorporated a few scenes of my own, stretching the timeframe a bit, but the major events are pretty much incorporated word for word from the show.  
> I don't have a beta. I hope that doesn't show.  
> Enjoy.

“Hey, O. Maybe he...” Bellamy stops for a second and looks at his sister, “or she...”. Octavia elbows him without missing a beat. She knows he is being supportive while trying to lighten the mood, but she is too sad to let him.

“Ouch! Easy there O.” Bellamy rubs his side, chuckling at the little firecracker sitting next to him on the bed.

Octavia’s mark appeared on the inside of her upper arm shortly after her 15th birthday. The three small silver stars were unmistakably soulmarks, and while Octavia was excited about her marks, Bellamy went to bed that night with a lot on his mind. 

What would this mean for his sister? She had been hidden away for her entire life -to make sure she had a life- but for her to meet the person with a matching set of silver stars on their arm, she would have to leave her hiding spot and... And what? Be ceased, arrested, locked up for three years and then floated? The knot in his stomach grew bigger at the thought.

Ever since Octavia had been the one to discover the silver pattern on Bellamy’s hip and heard the stories attached to the marks, she had been excited about it happening to her. To have someone in the world she could be with. Someone she wasn’t related to. As she grew older she found it terribly romantic, but she also started to worry. How would she ever find her match, if she wasn’t allowed to leave the house, to walk around the hallways of the Ark, to go to parties, hell even just go to school?

“Maybe you could look through the archive? Maybe you can see if it’s there, if someone else has the same mark as me.” Bellamy can’t remember a time he’s seen his sister’s eyes so pleading, so hopeful. It pains him to disappoint her, but getting into the mark archive is a dangerous task.

“Perhaps he isn’t in the archive.” Bellamy says with a soft voice, smiling at Octavia, brushing her hair out of her face. Her pleading look turns into a frown. “He might be hidden under the floor in a room in one of the other stations, begging his older sister to break in the archive to see if his match is catalogued. In that case, neither of you will find your match in the computer, 'cause neither of you will have been photographed.” The smile on Bellamy’s face is almost convincing.

As Bellamy makes up the story, Octavia’s frown turns into a sad smile. She knows her protective older brother is just trying to spare her feelings, but that doesn’t make her situation any less sad.

“Please Bell. For me? Think of it as an early present for my 16th birthday.” She has perfected her pout over the many years of wrapping Bellamy around her little finger, and combined with her big, pleading eyes Bellamy doesn’t stand a chance.

“It’s almost 10!” Their mother calls from her workstation in the middle of the small room. Jumpsuits from the farm station are spread out on the table, ready to be mended.

“Thanks mom.” Being a guard isn’t Bellamy’s dream-occupation, but he knows his mom has gone to great lengths to secure him a spot as a cadet and he knows exactly why. It’s yet another step in their lives to keep their secret safe. To keep his secret sister safe, the illegal second child.

Bellamy stands up, stops for a second, and then leans down to his sister. “I’ll see what I can do. But no promises.” A bright smile of pure joy appears on Octavia’s face and he knows it’s worth it to break into the archives. “Thank you Bell!” She leans up to give him a tight hug.

He kisses the top of her head, before saying goodnight to their mom and leaving for the nightshift.

\----

He hadn’t really thought he’d get a chance to check the archive. And especially not so soon after promising his sister to search it, but not a week after his promise he’s sitting in the almost comfortable guards chair with sixteen screens in front of him. His eyes only focused on one. 

He’s lucky the archive is divided into categories and “Stars” happens to be one of them. But even though that’s the case, there are still hundreds of images to look through. 

He wasn’t even supposed to be on watch that night, but the Commander ordered him in when he received a call from the Med Bay; the guard who was supposed to be on duty that night had to be on bedrest for a week after a nasty incident with a knife in the Sky Box. Cadets normally doesn’t get the gig of supervising the surveillance screens, but Bellamy is the best cadet they’ve had in years, and Commander Shumway would rather have Bellamy looking at the screens all night, than having to do it himself. 

More types of stars than Bellamy ever thought existed flickers through the screen. A few times he thinks he’s found a match, only to be proven wrong when he zooms in or sees the placement of it on the body chart in the file.

No where in the system is a picture of three small five-pointed silver stars placed on the upper arm. Bellamy sighs, not sure if he’s sad on behalf of his sister’s dreams or happy he can keep her safe, without extra hassle, for a little while longer.

He wasn’t planning on checking other marks than his sister’s, but now he is in the system and alone with the computer in the guards room, curiosity gets the better of him. He’s 21 and not yet matched up with his soulmate, which can mean two things; she doesn’t exist or she’s under 18. He hopes it’s the latter.

He doesn’t need to go a long way down on the list of categories to find “Arrows”. He enters the folder. This list isn’t as long as the one for stars, but he’s still careful in his search, making sure he doesn’t miss the pattern that’s the match for his own. 

He’s slumped over the computer, deep in concentration, when he sees it. The two arrows. Placed next to each other, facing opposite directions. He enters the file and checks the body chart. His heart stops for a moment. She’s here. She’s in the catalogue. The mark is placed on her hip. It’s her. 

He scrolls down the file for a picture. A headful of blonde hair appears, but before he sees the rest of her face, before he even gets to see her eyes, one of the other guards enters the room. His shoulders are wide enough to cover the screen for the few seconds it takes him to close the windows and bring solitaire up on the screen instead. He isn’t allowed to play any games while watching the security feed, but he needs an alibi for being slumped over the computer, and the innocent card game is much better to be caught playing, than going through confidential council records. 

“Hey, you’re not supposed to take your eyes off the screens on the wall, and you’re definitely not supposed to play card games,” the old, lanky guard says.

“Sorry man, I was just taking a small break” Bellamy explains in a tone that’s meant to lighten the mood. He hopes this guard isn’t one of the strict ones.

“I have to log it in my report...” The guard looks at Bellamy’s name tag “...Blake.”

“Shit!” Bellamy runs his fingers through his hair, while trying to come up with something. “I’m just a cadet. I didn’t... I didn’t think.”

“You have to learn to follow procedure one way or another. The commander will figure out how you need to be disciplined. That’s out of my hands.”

Bellamy sighs, trying to think fast. “The report hasn’t been written yet. It doesn’t even need to get _to_ your hands.” There's a pleading look on Bellamy’s face, as he tries to look as small and insignificant as possible. Right now is not the moment to look threatening. 

The guard considers it. Throughly. Bellamy feels like it takes forever for the guard to decide, but then he grumbles out, “Yeah, it’s not worth the hassle. Consider this a one-time lucky break kid.” He shakes his finger at Bellamy in a lecturing motion. “And don’t even think about playing your games again while on duty.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

After that, Bellamy doesn’t get another chance to try and find the name of this match or even see the rest of her face. He knows she’s alive, she’s blonde, and she has the same arrow-mark has him, placed on her hip, and that is it. That’s all he knows. He doesn’t try to enter the records again. I would just be another risk for his family, if he draws unnecessary attention to himself, and almost getting caught once is a close enough call for him. He would just have to wait until after the official introduction, after her 18th birthday, to meet her.

That doesn't stop him from looking carefully at all the blondes he passes on the Ark. He can’t stop wondering. Maybe it's the blonde working in the school -nah, she's over 18, and then they would have been introduced to each other already. Maybe it's the one walking past him, giggling with her two girlfriends. He isn't sure she’s his type. Maybe it's the one in the medical centre, or the one brushing past him hurrying to the farm station, or the one being trained my electrical...

He has never noticed how many blondes are on the Ark until now.

\----

He knows Octavia is strong, but he doesn’t want to extinguish the hope in her eyes. He also knows he has to tell her. She would keep begging him to check the records, and it wouldn’t be long until he wouldn’t be able hide the truth from her any longer, so he decides to get it over with the next time he’s alone with her.

A few days after he went through the archive, their mom goes out on a delivery run, and he has Octavia to himself. He hates to ruin the good mood she is in that day, but he also hopes it will help her through the news.

He’s braiding her long hair, running his fingers through the dark strands. He doesn’t know if he can look her in the eyes when he tells her, so he decides this will be the ideal time. 

“I couldn’t find it, O.” He says quietly. She doesn’t reply, but he knows she’s heard him. “I went through the archive the other night, but I didn’t find a match.”

“Oh,” is all she says, her shoulder slumps a bit at the news.

“There are several explanations as to why I didn’t find a match, so don’t worry O. It will be alright.”

Octavia takes a deep breath. He knows she’s trying to compose herself after the blow. Bellamy continues to talk, letting his sister get a moment to herself.

“The most likely reason is that he isn’t 15 yet. You know the marks don’t appear until then. You might be a cradle robber, O.” He tries to keep the tone light and laugh it off. The last comment does it and Octavia giggles. 

“Yeah. That’s probably it.” Octavia sighs, and Bellamy knows she isn’t happy with that reply. She was hoping he could tell her about her match, not tell her to wait. She is tired of waiting. All she’s ever done is wait.

It’s a while until Octavia speaks again. Bellamy’s tying the hairband on the end of her braid when he hears his sister ask, “Did you check for your mark?”

“Yeah. I did.” Both of them smiles that that; Bellamy at the thought of the blonde locks of hair he managed to see, and Octavia at the thought of her brother not being alone anymore. “She was in the system, but I was interrupted before I got the chance to see her face or read her name. All I know, is that she’s blonde.”

Octavia couldn’t wait to have a sister, to have someone new to talk to. But before she will met her new family member, her life is turned upside down, and she will have more people to talk to, than she ever thought possible.

\----

He couldn’t give her a description of her match for her 16th birthday, but a masquerade was coming up and Bellamy thought that would be the ideal way of cheering his beloved sister up.

He was right. For a short while, until things started going downhill. Fast. He got his mother killed and soon his sister would be floated too. All for what? To get a smile on Octavia’s face? He shouldn’t have risked it, but he did, and now his mother was floated for giving birth to a second child. He hated that stupid law, and now he hated it more than ever.

He doesn’t think of his match again. Not for a long time. Not until his boots have touched the surface of the planet he’s been dreaming of his whole life with his sister by his side, and a beautiful brunette asks him about the mark on his hip while in a room on the drop ship.

She traces it with her fingers and sighs. “I guess you have someone else out there for you, huh?” He isn’t completely comfortable with her touching the mark. It feels too personal, which seems a bit silly after the activities they’ve just completed.

“That doesn’t mean I can’t have fun until I find her,” Bellamy replies with a charming smile. She doesn’t reply for a while, she just keeps studying the fine silver lines on his hip.

“One of the idiots who didn’t strap in was my soulmate, and he just went and died before I really got to know him.” The brunette doesn’t look up at Bellamy. She keeps tracing the lines of the silver arrows and sighs again.

“Just because he was your best match, doesn’t mean you can’t be happy with someone else.” Bellamy isn’t sure what to say, but he has thought about it a few times and it seems like the ideal time to share his thoughts on the matter.

“Yeah. I guess you’re right.” She looks up at him with a small smile on her lips. Her smile grows to a smirk as she says, “Now, what were you saying about having fun?”

\----

If the mark hadn’t been hidden away behind the gun tucked into his trousers, Wells would have seen it, and Wells would have known and he would have told Clarke. Wells knows what her mark looks like, just as she knows what his looks like. It pains him, that she isn’t his match. He hats the stupid marks for it. 

If Bellamy had placed the gun just an inch to the left, Wells would have seen the mark, but he didn’t, instead Wells got to see chaos unfold before his eyes, as the delinquents fought over scavenged clothes and Murphy began torturing young girls.

Things escalates quickly, and though they are bearers of bad news, Wells is happy to have Clarke back at camp after her food-run. She’s the order the camp needs. She’s strong enough to argue with Bellamy, and while Bellamy might not agree with her, he does take her seriously.

Clarke tells them they aren’t alone on the ground. People had survived the radiation and now Earth is more dangerous for them than ever. Jasper had been speared through the chest before they ever made it to Mount Weather. She is outraged at how Bellamy had them remove their wristbands. They need the adults to come to Earth. They need their help, their weapons, their numbers.

Bellamy can see how she has the delinquents convinced with just a few words. If he wasn’t terrified about what it would mean for him to have the guard on Earth with them, he would have agreed with her. If life support on the Ark is failing, and the only way to see if Earth is inhabitable is to check their vitals via the wristbands, they would all stay in orbit and eventually die, if they thought Earth would kill them. 

He admires Clarke in that moment. There’s a fire in her that he’s only seen in few people, but he can’t let Clarke convince them. He wants to stay alive to take care of his sister like he’s taken care of her his whole life. So he makes his opposing speech, trying to get the masses on his side and hopefully have the rest of the delinquents remove their wristbands. They listen to him and cheers him on, and it’s a thrill to have so many people listen to him and agree with him, and eventually do what he says. He’s an authority and he likes it.

\----

Not long after, on that very same day, he hears four words from an unlikely source that makes his heart beat faster. “I’m here for you.” Clarke is determined and practical in her approach. She’s also one of the last people he’d expect his heart would speed up for. It only takes him a second to remember that she’s _the Princess_ , and he does _not_ want her.

“Clarke, what are you doing?” Wells is apparently not in on the plan, which secretly pleases Bellamy greatly. He isn’t too impressed with _the Chancellor of Earth_. Yet another one of the privileged, who will be very well off with the rest of the Ark on Earth.

“I hear you have a gun.” Clarke cuts right to the chase. Bellamy lifts up his shirt to reveal the gun. The mark is once again hidden behind the metal, only inches from being revealed to it’s match.

“Good. Follow me.” She’s unimpressed and clearly wants to get on with business. Bellamy isn’t about to be bossed around by the Ark’s Princess, especially now, when he’s gotten used to being the one in power. “Why would I do that?”

She looks at him with a face like she knows she’s gonna get her way. It almost pushes his buttons.

“Because you want them to follow you.” She says in a low voice, only meant for the two of them to hear. He likes that. “And right now they’re thinking only one of us is scared.” He knows she’s right, and he hates it, but he follows her.

He gives a few orders before leaving camp with her, Wells, and Murphy, and then they set out to find Jasper. Bellamy is sure the boy is dead. He’s had a spear gone through his chest, for God’s sake, but the stubborn princess is not giving up.

\----

He can’t help but smile when the Princess argues with him while on the hike to find Jasper. She’s a firecracker, just like his sister, and he’s starting to like it. Even if she does the exact opposite of what he wants her to, he can’t stop admiring her.

“The only way the Ark is gonna think I’m dead, is if I’m dead. Got it?” She is dead set on keeping the wristband on. He smiles at her courage. It won’t take him and Murphy long to force the wristband off her, even with Wells there. “Brave Princess.” He’s slowly advancing on her, getting further into her personal space, but he’s interrupted by that insufferable _Spacewalker_.

“Why don’t you find your own nickname?” Finn comes walking through their little conflict, and efficiently puts a stop to the forcible removal of Clarke’s wristband. _Because it’s the perfect nickname for her_. Finn takes Clarke off to walk with him, leaving Bellamy alone with Murphy and Wells.

They look for a while, but eventually find Jasper. When they do, Clarke falls into a trap and he saves her. He reaches for her and catches her like it’s second nature. He has her in a tight grip, but he can see something in her eyes that he knows isn’t supposed to hurt him. She isn’t sure if he will let her go and fall to her death or keep the grip tight. He tightens his grip at that revelation, determined to assure her he won’t let go. The others come rushing over and they get her up. She’s safe.

It’s when she’s over the edge, lying on the ground in front of them, that he sees it. Or he think he sees it, because it can’t possibly be right. Her shirt is ridden up on her stomach and her hip is visible. There is a mark. Two silver arrows, facing opposite directions.

As soon as she’s on her feet again, she adjusts her clothes, and the mark is hidden again.

Is she... Is she the blonde? The one he saw in that file over a year ago? He stares at her, but they have to get moving, have to get Jasper down from the tree he’s strung up on, and have to get home in safety, and so he tries to push it aside. His confusion and his feelings are forced away. At least for the time being. He tries. But he can’t stop staring at her all the way back to camp.

\----

He thinks about her for hours after getting back to camp. He wants to deny it, but he knows he can’t. When he finally sees her outside the drop ship, his feet move at their own accord. She sits on a log and he sits down next to her.

“How’s Jasper doing?” he asks. She’s been working on him ever since they got back. She looks up at Bellamy, surprise crossing her features. He knows this is a drastic change in his approach to her, but he has to start somewhere if he wants to get to know her. Know if she really could be his match.

“I... I can’t do anything more right now. All we can do is wait. And hope.” Her forehead rests on her hands, her elbows rests on her knees. She’s tired. The hope she’s speaking of is leaving her.

“How long does it take until we see some improvement with a wound like that?” 

“I don’t know. I’m not a trained doctor. I never saw anything like it on the Ark. I was only an intern for a short while before... the Sky Box.” The way Clarke pauses peaks Bellamy’s interest. He realises he doesn’t know what got her locked up. It must be serious for them to lock up their princess.

“Did you know him? Jasper? In the Sky Box?” Maybe that’s the reason for her unwavering resolve to rescue him and patch him up.

She snorts and the sound surprises him. “Well, solitary isn’t a hub for social interaction!” She looks up at him at that, gauging his reaction.

He tries not to let his bewilderment show, but his pause is a bit too long, his eyes a bit too wide. She must have welcomed the distraction from Jasper, because she elaborates before he collects his thoughts. 

“They couldn’t have me talking to anyone. Not with what I knew.” A sad smile was on her lips at that. “They floated my dad because he knew about the Ark running out of air. He wanted to warn people. So did I. I got sent to solitary for a year, but he got floated.” Tears well up in her eyes. An alarmed expression flickers on her face in the shortest of seconds when she realises she’s about to cry in front of him. She quickly looks down and sucks in a deep breath.

She got locked up for wanting to share with the people what the privileged wanted to keep secret. He respects her even more now.

“They’ve known for a year? Why didn’t they do anything sooner?”

“I don’t know. I was locked up before I could ask.”

Bellamy’s heart thumps a bit harder after her confession. He never thought he’d want the princess, but he’s starting to come to terms with it.


	2. Chapter 2

It doesn’t take long before Bellamy can’t deny it any longer. He feels a pull towards her he can’t explain. He doesn’t like how Spacewalker is all over her. It makes him testy and on edge. One night Bellamy sees him grab food for him and Clarke and it leaves him with a sour taste in his mouth. When a kid tries to take some food without turning in his wristband, like Spacewalker had, he punches him to the ground. He excuses it with how they needed to know who’s in charge. And when he catches Atom making out with his sister, he has no mercy. “I won’t be disobeyed!” He calls up to Atom, as he’s strung up in the tree for the night. It doesn’t make him feel good, but it makes him feel better. Someone other than him is hurting.

He also lets it go out on Clarke. She’s trying to save Jasper’s life, but after three days of him moaning and crying out, his guys have had enough, and so has he. He’s pushing her further away from him, and he doesn’t care. _He doesn’t_. She needs to put Jasper out of his misery, and if she won’t, then he will.

But it’s not Bellamy who ends up having to put one of the 100 out of their misery. It’s Clarke. And it isn’t Jasper’s suffering that needs to be taken care of. It’s Atom’s. He was caught in the poisonous fog, his skin is burnt and blistered, and “kill me” are the only words leaving his mouth. Bellamy doesn’t know what to do. He’s hoping Atom can be saved, but deep down he knows what needs to be done. He feels Clarke behind him. He wants to be strong, to help his friend, but he can’t put the knife to his throat. Clarke can. All she needs is a quick glance at Atom to tell he isn’t able to be saved. She takes a small breath and goes into doctor-mode. Bellamy can see the instant change in her demeanor. She knows what she has to do to relieve Atom of the pain he’s in.

Clarke leans a tiny bit closer to the blistered Atom. “I’m gonna help you, alright?” Her voice breaks a tiny bit. She touches his hair, a calming gesture, and starts to hum.

Bellamy looks at her in awe. She’s so strong and so good. All she wants to do is keep everyone alive. He remembers her words from that morning, when he wanted them to end Jasper’s misery, “This isn’t the Ark. Down here every life matters.” And yet, she’s about to end one. 

She takes the knife out of Bellamy’s hand and sticks it into Atoms neck, all while humming the quiet melody. She strokes Atom's hair while he slips away, and Bellamy can’t stop looking at her. She is absolutely amazing.

When they make it back to the camp, he appreciates Clarke’s effort at distracting Octavia. But it’s in vain. She sees him. He doesn’t want Octavia to see Atom like that. He knows he had meant _something_ to her. He just hopes he wasn’t the one with the star-mark on his upper arm. She sees his blistered body and she cries, and it hurts Bellamy to see his little sister like that. But it turns out Atom wasn’t the one with the three silver stars on his upper arm, and that fact comforts Bellamy a tiny bit.

\----

Bellamy watches them from his spot at the other camp fire. His leg won’t stop bouncing and his hands are balled into fists. He doesn’t want Spacewalker sitting so close to her. Their thighs are touching as they roast their dinner. She’s laughing at something he said now and he’s smiling at her and bumping his shoulder into hers. 

Bellamy can’t take it any more. He stands up to leave, leaving a confused Murphy behind, and goes straight to one of the girls that has been fluttering her eyelashes at him all day.

He needs a distraction and she would do just fine. Or so he thought, because he didn’t expect her being blonde to be an issue, but when his face is so close to hers he can’t make out her features, he thinks he sees Clarke. He goes with it, savours it. It starts with a rough kiss, but the girl is into it and he needs to let out some steam. She claws at him, pulls his hair, bites his lip and he grabs her tight and closes his eyes.

When he wakes up next to her the next morning it all feels off. Her hair is the wrong shade of blonde and her face is too narrow. He slides out of the blankets that makes up for a bed, and goes to get dressed before going out into the camp. 

\----

It’s a couple of his boys that finds Wells’ body and carries him back to camp. He’s long gone. The blood on his neck and on his clothes have dried. It happened last night. The grounders are getting closer to camp. They need to set up better patrols, to have a curfew for leaving the camp. And he needs to tell Clarke.

She’s still asleep when he finds her in the corner of the drop ship that’s acting as a med-bay. He wishes he could let her sleep a little longer, let her be in her state of calm and blissful ignorance, but it’s a dangerous world they live in and he has things to do, stuff to prepare.

He crouches down next to her and touches her arm to wake her up. “Clarke? Wake up. I have some sad news.”

She opens her eyes slowly, looking at him with sleepy eyes. Her eyebrows knits together and she clears her throat before finding her voice. “What’s going on?” Clarke sits up and rubs her eyes.

“I don’t know the best way to tell you this... The grounders killed Wells.” 

She springs up, dashing towards the door. Since landing on the ground, all of the delinquents sleep in their clothes. Everyone is too afraid not to. Clarke is too practical not to. She needs to be able to get on her feet in seconds. And that is exactly what happens now. 

“It’s too late Clarke! It happened last night.” She pauses half-way to the door. “He’s gone.”

“I need to see him.” She says in a quiet voice before leaving the drop ship. Bellamy follows her and leads her to the body. His boys are already digging a grave on his command, but the grave is still too shallow. She has time to say goodbye.

First she sees the boys digging. Then she sees Wells’ body. She rushes to his side and falls to her knees. A shaky hand reaches for his face, as Clarke lets out a deafening sob. She’d just cleared the air between them and now he was gone. She touches his face and flinches. He’s so cold. He’s been dead in the forest all night. 

It’s twenty more minutes before the boys have dug a hole deep enough. Clarke is leaning over Wells’ body, not wanting to let go of her friend just yet. But she has to. They need to get him buried.

Bellamy takes a step closer to Clarke and tries to get her attention, “Clarke.” She doesn’t reply. Bellamy walks closer to her and bends down to touch her arm, to get her off Wells.

“We need to bury him now Clarke.” He says as she finally responds. She nods and sits up.

Bellamy takes a deep breath. He’s not sure how the next thing he says will go with her, but he has to say it. It has to be done. “We’ll need to get his clothes off. It needs to be repurposed.”

Clarke nods again. Bellamy sighs. He was half expecting it to turn into a fight. 

“You two.” He says pointing at two of the oldest boys in the group. “Take his pants, shoes, and socks off. Leave his underwear and t-shirt.” He glances quickly at Clarke before continuing. The t-shirt is too stained with blood. He’s not sure they’ll be able to get it off with their limited access to cleaning materials. Removing his underwear would be degrading. He’s dead, but he was a good kid. Bellamy recognises that. “Remove them carefully.”

Clarke cries silently as they lower Wells’ body into the grave. They use rope, making the descent more graceful than the first few burials they had on Earth.

Bellamy stands next to Clarke and wraps his arm around her. She shifts and leans a tiny bit more into him, accepting his small gesture of comfort. She keeps looking at the grave until the last shovelful of dirt has been padded down on the gave and the boys have left. Bellamy has stepped back and is now leaning against a tree thirty feet away. He wants to give her privacy, but can’t leave her alone in the woods.

That night he installs a new law; No one leaves the camp alone. Not even in the day-time.

\----

Everything happens so fast. One moment, Murphy has a knife to Clarke’s throat. The next, Charlotte jumps over the edge of the cliff, falling to her death. She was just a kid. She was a scared kid, and he had given her advice, and now she is dead. If Murphy hadn’t been so relentless she could have survived. They would have helped her through it and she would have survived. He sees Clarke’s despair and he sees red. He wants Murphy to suffer for everything he’s done. 

His fists comes down on Murphy’s face. Hard. He doesn’t think he can stop again. Someone pulls him off. He isn’t sure who. It doesn’t matter. “Get off me! He deserves to die!”

“No! We don’t decide who lives and dies! Not down here!” Clarke’s blocking his way to Murphy and her words makes him falter. Finn lets go of Bellamy. Murphy’s wheezing. He hopes that means he’s broken his nose.

“So help me God, if you say that people have a right to decide-” he starts, but Clarke interrupts, “No no, I was wrong before. Okay? You were right! Sometimes it’s dangerous to tell people the truth. But if we’re gonna survive down here, we can’t just live by whatever the hell we want! We need rules.”

“And who makes those rules? Huh? You?”

“For now, _we_ make the rules. Okay?” And that is how she appoints herself his co-leader. They are strong together. He knows he needs her counsel to get the camp through all of this in one piece. After what just happened to Wells, Murphy, and Charlotte, he doesn’t trust himself with the full leadership anymore.

She is also the one who keeps a cool head and suggests they banish Murphy. He is okay with that. He doesn’t want him back in camp, and now he’s had a moment to gather his thoughts, he knows he doesn’t want any more deaths.

\----

They are more affectionate today. They’d come back into camp early in the morning. Where had they been so early? Finn’s hand is at the small of Clarke’s back, she leans into him.

“Hey there brother. You look tense.” Bellamy diverts his eyes away from Clarke and Finn. He’s not in the mood for Octavia’s teasing. And she would be relentless in her teasing if she found out. “I just have a lot on my mind. We’re not done building the wall yet.”

He is impressed with how well the delinquents work together. It’s under his supervision and it makes him a proud. They are building a real camp for themselves, making their home more secure. He’s hoping the work would keep him distracted. It doesn’t work. It distracts him for a while, but it doesn’t help much when he sees Clarke and Finn together in camp. Even doing some of the heavy lifting isn’t always a distraction. 

He hasn’t seen them all afternoon, and apparently that is a distraction too. It makes his mind go to the worst of places. _What if they've found somewhere to be alone. It isn't that hard. What if he kisses her and she kisses him back, if his hands are all over her and she enjoys it, if they..._ He is only distracted from his work for a moment, but that is all it takes for him to miss the step on the ladder. He has to let go of the axe to get a tighter hold on the ladder, and the sharp blade makes a cut into his forearm as it falls. It stings, and it’s deep. 

He thinks he needs stitches, so he goes to the make-shift medical centre. He hopes Clarke is there, and if she isn't he'll stitch himself up. It seems like Finn and Clarke are clued to the hip these days, so it surprises Bellamy when he finds her alone in the drop ship. He’s happy she’s alone. He feels like he can breathe easier. He might be smiling.

“Hi.” Bellamy walks up to Clarke. She’s sitting with her back to him, cataloguing the medical supplies. She doesn’t turn to look at him.

“Hi. What’s going on?” She asks while rolling up the gauze she’s just measured the length of.

“I kinda need your help.” He has tied a piece of fabric around his forearm, trying to stop the bleeding, but it needs more care than that, and she is the closest thing this camp has to a doctor.

She looks quickly over her shoulder, doing a double take when her mind realises what she’s looking at. “Oh my god, Bellamy!” She gets up from her chair so quickly it almost topples over. “Are you alright?” She makes it to him in a few long strides, which Bellamy finds very impressive, considering the length of her legs. 

“The axe slipped.”

“The axe slipped?!” Her voice jumps an octave. She reaches out for his arm, holds it with one hand and keeps pressure on the wound with the other.

“Yeah.” Bellamy rubs his neck with his right hand looking a bit sheepish.

She is already pulling him towards the table in the middle of the room when she says, “Come in to the light.” The way she says it, and the way she looks at him while she says it, Bellamy feels like she’s asking him to tell her what he knows. To come forward. To let her in on the secret. The secret that ties them closer than just being co-leaders. He shakes his head lightly and follows her.

He jumps up on the table, letting his injured arm rest on his thigh and tries not to think about the fact that Clarke has stepped in between his legs. She’s completely focused on his wound, cleaning it and using the alcohol they’ve found as disinfectant. 

The silence is getting too much for Bellamy. He knows Clarke is completely focused on her job, but he needs a distraction from her hands on his skin and her hip leaning against his thigh. “How’s-” he has to clear his throat before continuing, “How’s inventory coming along?”

Clarke sighs before answering, “Much better if I didn’t have to use all of our supplies on our clumsy co-leader” she looks up at him through her lashes with a tiny smile on her lips. It makes his heart flutter.

He smiles back at her. “Hey! It’s called an accident, Princess!”

“Well, you’re gonna need a few stitches.” As the supplies are already spread out on the table, Clarke barely has to move to reach the needle and thread. She leans over his thigh to reach the thread, and he loves the way her body feels against his him. He doesn’t even notice he sighs.

“Take a swing of this before I start.” Clarke passes him the bottle of alcohol. It‘s a golden substance, no longer clear, and it feels warm in his throat.

He looks at her while she stitches him up. Really looks at her. He hasn’t had the chance to study her this intensely before and he is glad he got the opportunity. Even though he had to have a needle zig-zag through his skin for it to happen.

Her hands are steady and the stitches are neat and precise. She cuts the string and lets her finger follow the line of the stitches before moving away to clean the needle again.

“Come by once a day to get it looked at. I want to make sure it doesn’t get infected. There are so many new bacteria down here, and I’m not sure how they affect us yet, and I just wouldn’t want to see your arm...” She pauses and looks up at him. “Sorry. I’m rambling now.” She grabs the gauze and comes to stand close to him again.

“You say that like I don’t find the bacteria on Earth fascinating.” His lips twist into a smirk. She huffs out a breath, biting back a laugh. She bites her lip and all he can think about right then is that mouth and those lips. She’s standing so close he can feel her breath on his throat. A light shade of pink is now covering Clarke’s cheeks. He hadn’t expected seeing her blush would affect him like this. He’s looking intensely at her again, but her eyes are still locked on his arm. She wraps the gauze around his arm one last time and fastens it.

When she’s done she looks up at him, her hands still on his arm, and he’s sure his heart skips a beat. He wants to tell her now, but he’s afraid she isn’t ready yet. He hasn’t been the most appealing person in the first few days they’ve been on Earth, he knows that, and he isn’t sure she’ll accept him. 

Before he decides on what to do, Spacewalker comes into the room. Bellamy’s eyes flies up to the entrance and Clarke turns around. Her hands slides off his arm as she turns around to run to Finn. He picks her up in a one-armed hug, his right hand holds the bags of seaweed she’s sent him out to collect. She wants a stash of all the medical herbs she can get her hands off. They never know when they’ll need them, and Clarke would rather be prepared.

She slides down Finn’s body, pulling him down for a quick kiss. Finn looks over her head to Bellamy once Clarke pulls away, but quickly looks back at Clarke. Bellamy remembers the words he spoke to Wells the day they went out to find a speared Jasper, _With Finn around, Clarke doesn’t even see you. It’s like you’re not even here_. Bellamy looks down at his hands, his jaw is clenched so tight he could have bitten through metal. Clarke takes Finn’s hand and asks him about the supplies. _See. You’re invisible._

Bellamy jumps off the table, walks past the happy couple and quickly says, “Thanks for stitching me up,” before leaving the drop ship. He needs to let off some steam. He chops down trees and cuts the logs for the next four hours straight. 

\----

Finn looks at her in a way Bellamy doesn’t like. He touches her. He whispers something into her ear and she leads him away.

Bellamy’s anger helps him lift the giant wooden beams, tie the knots, swing the axe. There’s nothing he can do. It’s her choice and she’s happy, even if Bellamy is miserable. She must know Finn isn’t her match. Then why be with him? Because she needs someone. Someone who shows interest and is there for her, and Finn has been right there, to charm his way into her life from the very beginning.

With a grimace on his face, he remembers the words he said to a hot brunette not too long ago, _That doesn’t mean I can’t have fun until I find her_. And Clarke is having fun. Bellamy isn’t. He can’t. Plenty of girls are still seeking him out, flirting, making their moves, but he isn’t interested in others. Not anymore. Not now he knows who bares the matching mark to his silver arrows. There is no substitute.

 


	3. Chapter 3

She isn’t in camp when something enters the atmosphere and crashes not far from their camp. She’s out with Spacewalker again, and he has left by the time they come back.

He does, however, meet them in the forest later. The radio he’s just stolen from the pod and thrown in the river is their only means of communication, and apparently they are ready to sacrifice 300 people on the Ark to make oxygen last a short while longer, until they get a status from Earth. That’s why the girl has come down in the pod from the Ark. Before Bellamy can react to the information Clarke provides him with, Spacewalker intervenes, pushing him in the chest, making him stumble back.

God, he is insufferable.

Bellamy didn’t expect to see the newly landed girl up and about so soon, and he certainly didn’t expected her to tell them he shot Chancellor Jaha. Finn and Clarke looks at him with horrified expressions. Clarke is quick to piece, most of, the story together. Killing Jaha is the reason he tried to cut off all communication with the Ark and leave them to think they were dead. He killed the chancellor and he will pay for it if they ever come down to Earth.

The girl from the pod is feisty, not backing down. He can respect that. But she is also a pain in the ass and he isn’t in the mood.

“Jaha deserved to die,” Bellamy says as he walks away from the group, “you all know that.” He can’t look Clarke in the eye. Not yet. He’s afraid to see her looking at him with that horrified expression again. Like he’s a monster.

“Yeah, he’s not my favourite person either,” the girl barks out, “but he isn’t dead.”

Bellamy’s stunned. “What?” is all he manages to say, and the girl makes a jab at how he’s a lousy shot. He hadn’t killed Jaha. He is still alive.

“Bellamy,” Clarke reaches for him, reducing the distance between them. “Don’t you see what this means? You’re not a murderer.” Clarke’s right in front of him now. He isn’t a murderer. Not anymore. He feels like there’s a hole in his chest. He’s been the murderer for two weeks now, played the part, but it turns out that isn’t who he is. He hasn’t killed anyone. It has become part of who he is. It’s something he’s expected to live with for the rest of his life, and now it’s gone.

“You always did what you had to do to protect your sister. That’s who you are. And you can do it again. By protecting 300 of your people.” Her big blue eyes are staring up at him. Pleading. “Where’s the radio?”

His voice is low when he replies, “It’s too late.” Bellamy isn’t a murderer, but he’s about to become one. “I threw it in the river. It’s probably unsalvageable now.”

“You let that be up to me,” the newly landed girl says. “Now, where is the river.”

\----

They find the radio, but Raven says it will take at least half a day just to dry the components. 

“Like I said, it’s too late.” Bellamy says with his arms folded over his chest. He isn’t happy with the outcome. Not now he knows what’s at stake. Clarke is furious, blaming him for the imminent death of the 300 on the Ark. So does he.

Raven is smart. She has a plan up and running in no time, and isn’t afraid to order people around. 

They get the flares up. Now they just have to hope that they will be seen - and that it isn’t too late. Bellamy walks up next to Clarke as the flares are fired off. “’Think they can see it from up there?” 

“I don’t know,” she says, eyes looking up at the brilliant red lights the flares are omitting, “I hope so.”

“Can you wish on this kind of shooting star?” she says, looking up at him. He doesn’t reply. “Forget it.” She says, looking back up at the glowing red sky. He keeps looking at her.

“I wouldn’t even know what to wish for.” He looks up at the flares again. “What about you?” She doesn’t reply. Maybe she doesn’t know either. He doesn’t see her sad eyes looking over at Finn with his arm around Raven.

\----

“Did you hear Spacewalker has a girlfriend?” Dax comes over to where Bellamy is sitting at the camp fire, roasting the bunnies the hunting group has caught that day.

“Old news, Dax. Spacewalker and the Princess have been cosy for a while now.” Bellamy grumbles out, not happy for the reminder.

Dax chuckles. It doesn’t suit him. “No, not _her_.” Bellamy looks up at Dax. He smiles like it’s the most exciting bit of information he’s ever told someone. ”The new girl, Raven. Apparently Spacewalker and her have been together for _years_.”

“What?” Bellamy’s hand is balling into a fist. Anger floods through him. Spacewalker is supposed to be the guy who treats Clarke right, and now it turns out he was just using her while he waited for his girlfriend to arrive.

“He dumped her as soon as Raven sat her feet on the ground.” Bellamy doesn’t need to hear more. “Look after the meat.” He orders, before he leaves to find Spacewalker.

He hopes to find him alone, and he does. He’s about to walk into the drop ship, but Bellamy pushes him to the side. Finn stumbles back. They are now hidden from view from most of the camp. Not that Bellamy cares at that point. He just wants Spacewalker to learn his lesson. Don’t miss the the Princess’ heart.

“What the fuck, man!” Spacewalker is still on his feet, but that only lasts a moment. Bellamy’s right hand hits his jaw so hard he falls to the ground. 

“What are you doing?!” he scrambles back on his feet.

“How could you do that to Clarke?!” Bellamy moves in on Finn again. The confused look on Finn's face says it all, _why do you care?_ He backs up a bit, but Bellamy punches him again, this time hitting him on the nose. Spacewalker falls back and doesn’t get up. He’s knocked unconscious. Bellamy thinks it’s over way too quick, but he lets him be, hoping that was enough of a lesson for him. It certainly helps a bit with Bellamy’s mood.

\----

He can’t find Octavia anywhere in the camp. When was the last time he saw her? He can’t remember. Was she there earlier, when they sent the flares up? He doesn’t remember seeing her. He was too occupied with standing next to Clarke as they looked up at the red lights illuminating the dark night sky.

The first person he goes to for help, the person he wants most in the world to help him and the only other person he would really trust with his sister, is still angry with him. Not three hours has passed since their attempt at contacting the Ark, and Clarke is worried about every single one of the 300 lives, currently hanging in the balance. She makes verbal stabs at him and he takes it. He knows he’s to blame. But as soon as he asks her if she’s seen Octavia and she sees the look of concern on Bellamy’s face, she pushes her anger aside and agrees to help him. “I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it for Octavia” she says before leaving to check the rest of the tents.

She isn’t there. 

And then they see the meteors. Only, they aren’t meteors. It was too late. Too late or they never even saw the flares. He’s only been a non-murderer for half a day, until he is just that again. A murderer.

Bellamy hates this day.

When they find his sister, she’s in a cave, shackled to a wall, a Grounder unconscious by her side. Relief washes over him. She is alive. It’s the best thing to happen all day. 

After some commotion in the cave, Finn gets stabbed. Bellamy carries him back to the camp, while others brings the unconscious Grounder back as a prisoner. They string him up on the second floor of the drop ship, away from the storm and away from prying eyes. Bellamy needs answers to protect his camp, and they will not be easy to come by.

Clarke works hard to save Finn’s life. They are lucky Raven fixed radio. Abby is able to guide Clarke through the worst of it, even though the storm raging outside cuts the connection a few times.

Bellamy notices the small reactions the Grounder has to Octavia. He fights his restraints when Octavia’s pushed back and Bellamy tells her to go back down stairs. The Grounder has drawn a picture of her in his notebook. And the way he looks at her... Bellamy doesn’t want to admit it, but there is affection in the Grounder’s eyes when he looks at his sister.

Finn's wound is difficult to treat. Clarke stitches him up, but Finn spasms and they find poison on the blade that cut him. Clarke only knows one person who will know the antidote. The Grounder.

But he isn’t giving up the answer. He doesn’t indicate which one of the phials is the antidote.

“Do it.” His co-leader gives Bellamy the all clear to get the information out of the Grounder. No matter the means. Octavia is pleading, but he has to do it. They need that information. They need all the information, starting with the antidote.

Bellamy cuts the Grounder’s shirt off. He doesn’t see his mark. Octavia gasps, but Bellamy doesn’t pay attention to her. “Bellamy, no. Please.” He doesn’t look at the Grounder before he swings the makeshift whip. He looks at Clarke. She gives him a curt nod. He moved his arm back and swings the safety belt around. The Grounder grunts. 

He still can’t look at him. He seeks out Clarke’s eyes for affirmation. As long as they haven’t gotten the information, and Clarke hasn’t asked him to stop, Bellamy will carry on. She looks away, but doesn’t stop him. Not until he is about to swing the makeshift whip a third time. She jumps in to give the Grounder the opportunity to point out the antidote. He doesn’t.

Bellamy touches Clarke’s shoulder. She sighs and steps back. He swings the whip a forth time, a fifth time, a sixth time, and somewhere in between the lashes he notices the mark on the Grounder’s upper arm, just above a place his t-shirt had hidden before. Three five-pointed stars. He falters. He is torturing this man. This man, with the mark matching his sister’s. Does she know? Has she seen it? He hopes she hasn’t, but he can’t stop now. 

He swings a seventh time, an eighth time, a ninth time. “Enough!” His sister is yelling at him at the top of her lungs. 

“Clarke! He’s getting worse!” Raven calls from the lowest deck. 

“We’re running out of time. Which one!?” Clarke spreads the phials out in front of the Grounder again. “Which. One. Is it?” She pleads for Finn’s life, but also for the Grounder to stop his own torture. “If you tell us they’ll stop.”

“Please! Tell us which is the antidote, and they’ll stop this.” She tries again, but it doesn’t work. Bellamy throws the seat belt aside. It makes the Grounder jump in his restraints. 

Bellamy finds a metal bolt that has been attached to the ship at some point, sharp enough to pierce through skin. “If that doesn’t work, maybe this will.” He walks towards the Grounder.

Before he does anything he looks towards his co-leader, “Clarke, you don’t have to be here for this.”

“I’m not leaving until I get that antidote.” Her hands are on her hips, she is determined.

“Last chance.” Bellamy tells the Grounder, but he doesn’t reply. He pierce the bolt through the Grounder’s hand. He doesn’t scream, doesn’t yelp. He grunts and breathes heavier. But he doesn’t tell them which one is the antidote.

Raven comes storming through. Finn had stopped breathing for a short while, and she needs answers. Now. She grabs a hold of two wires and electrocutes the Grounder.

The lights on the drop ship flickers. The Grounder still doesn’t reply, so she hits him with the wires again.

That’s when Octavia grabs the poisonous knife and makes a cut on her arm. A look of horror flashes across the Grounder’s face. “He won’t let me die,” she says, as she walks towards him and bends down to the phials.

She’s right. He wouldn’t. The Grounder points out the antidote to her, and they save Finn’s life. His sister’s too.

“O,” Bellamy breathes out. He bents down to her, to take her away from the scene, to comfort her, anything, but she won’t let him and shakes him off. “Don’t touch me!”

\----

After the storm, the camp is a mess. They need to clean up and get the walls up again in the places where they’ve fallen. Bellamy gets to touch Clarke’s hand as she comes outside. The bolt he’d stuck in the Grounders hand, that one she’s just removed, is still in her hand. It isn’t her’s to carry. The touch is brief, but he hopes it comforts her. “Who we are and who we need to be to survive, are very different things.” Is he trying to comfort her or himself?

They need to decide what to do with the Grounder. “It’s not easy being in charge, is it?” he says. Her big blue eyes stares up at him. They need to get on with business, so he moves past her to help with the tidying up and she goes back to the drop ship to check up on her patients.

\----

Everywhere Bellamy goes in camp he sees delinquents in love. Whether it’s as innocent as obvious pining or a full-blown public makeout-session, it’s there. Right in front of him.

He’s already stumbled upon a heartbroken girl, who he had to comfort for the better part of an hour before she stopped crying. He’s slightly worried about the dynamic in camp, about people taking sides in the breakups, about how that will affect their thriving home. But he’s also happy to see the kids take care of each other, love each other, live.

Fox is the first one who comes to him asking about the marks.

“If we don’t have the archive anymore, how will we find our match?” she says, sitting next to him by the camp fire.

“It won’t be as easy as it used to, but you will find each other,” Bellamy says with a comfort in his voice.

“You’ll have to make an effort. You can’t just expect them to fall out of the sky and land on top of you” Clarke interrupts while taking a seat across the fire from them. She doesn’t seem to be in the best of moods today.

“I wasn’t,” Fox replies, looking up at Clarke with a frown. “I was actually thinking,” she continues, “What if we make our own archive? Or make a noticeboard of some sorts. If people find their match on the board, they’ll find each other.” Her eyes shine with hope. She wants her idea approved by her leaders.

“That might not be such a bad idea Fox,” Bellamy says, “But keep in mind, it might not be everyone who wants to find their match, or is ready to be matched. Or maybe they haven’t had their marks yet. Don’t be too sad if no one steps forward as your match right away.”

Fox nods, smiling at Bellamy. “I know. Thanks.” This whole conversation reminds him of the one he had with Octavia. That eels like a lifetime ago now.

“We need something to draw on,” Clarke chirps in, “We need to draw the mark and have information about it’s location and who has it.”

“We can’t spare any blankets, sheets, or even tarp at the moment,” Bellamy muses, “Should we just draw on the side of the drop ship?”

“It might wash off in the rain. And I’m sure someone would try to mess with the drawings when no one’s around. We need to be able to take it down at night and in bad weather.”

Bellamy sighs, “I could make a some sheets of wood into a notice board. But we have to have the wall fully up first, before I use wood on it” He looks over at Fox.

“Of course,” she says and smiles at him. She gives him a small hug before walking off, “Thank you.”

He looks over at Clarke across the fire. She’s smiling at him, and he thinks he sees fondness in her features.

\----

He’s gone down to the river to fill bottles with water, but when he gets there he realises he hasn’t had a break for a while. Everywhere he goes, someone needs to talk to him or needs to be told what to do. He doesn’t mind. It’s a tough job, but he wouldn’t give it up to anyone.

But as he comes down to this little piece of paradise he has do indulge in the peace and quiet. Even just for a moment. 

After a while, someone interrupts him, but when he sees who it is, he can’t get annoyed.

“I thought you were gonna get us a new supply of water,” Clarke calls out, balancing on the rocks, trying to get to where he’s sitting.

“I am, Princess, I just decided to enjoy life while I did so.” He gives her a soft smile. He’s happy she’s with him right now, here, in his little paradise. She sits down next to him, closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and enjoys the sun. 

She lets out a sigh before saying, “I can understand why you picked this spot.” He hums in agreement. Birds are chirping and the sound of the waterfall is calming.

They sit for a short while before Bellamy asks, “Why did you come down here? Missed me already?” A crooked grin is plastered on his face as she opens one eye to look at him. “You wish.” _Yeah. I actually do, Princess._

“I brought more bottles to keep the water in. Thought we might as well stock up.” She shrugs. He suspects she really just wants a moment of peace too.

“If this was only a beach. That would be so much more comfortable!” Bellamy sighs.

“You know, you don’t have to sit on the rocks. There's a wonderful patch of grass right over there.” Clarke nods to their left.

“You think you have all the answers, don’t you?”

“Mmm.”

“Well, a patch of grass isn’t a beach,” he says, looking at her again.

“But it is much more comfortable than rocks,” she smiles at him. She’s so beautiful here in the sun next to him, smiling. 

She gets up, but he’s not ready for her to leave. He wants her to stay next to him. 

“Come. Let’s go to the grass.” She reaches out a hand to help him up. It’s so soft, and it fits perfectly in his.

“What’s wrong with the rocks?” He challenges. “Too hard for the Princess?”

“Hey! You’re the one who wanted more comfort! Don’t blame me. I’m just fixing your problems-ahh!” Clarke’s foot catches on a root just as they reach the patch of grass. Bellamy reaches out to steady her, but she’s already tumbling over, taking Bellamy with her in the fall.

He lands on top of her, but he manages to brace some of the fall as he lands, shifting his weight to his arm. She lands face down, but quickly shifts to her side, facing him on the grass. Her body is flush up against his, his legs intwined with hers, his left hand moves to rest on the spot on her hip where the mark is located. When he realise that he sucks in a sharp breath. 

She looked up at him and laughs. Then she rolled back unto the grass, lying on her back, while chuckling. Now _this_ is the most beautiful thing he has ever seen. Her hair is spread out to all sides on the grass beneath her. He can't help but smile at the sight before him.

Bellamy shifts a bit, and props his head up on his right hand. His legs are still intwined with hers, and his left hand is still resting on top of her mark. He could lie like this forever. 

She looks over at him and notices his intense stare. That beautiful pink blush creeps up on her cheeks and she looks away again before shifting to sit up. He’s forced to let go of her, to draw his legs back to himself, to move his hand from her mark. He moves to sit up too.

She smiles at him again when she asks, “How’s Octavia?”

He starts picking at the grass by his legs. “Did you see the mark on the Grounder?”

“Yeah. Three stars,” she says, looking confused.

“I tortured him for information. I didn’t see them at first, but I kept torturing him, even after I saw the marks.” Bellamy looks up at Clarke with a pained expression. “I knew they were a match for Octavia’s, but I just kept going.” He looks down and takes a breath before continuing. “And now she hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you. She can’t. You’re her brother.”

Bellamy scoffs. “Then you didn’t hear what she said to me afterwards. You didn’t see the way she pulled away from me, the way she looked at me.”

“Hey.” Clarke reaches over and touches his arm. “You did what you had to do. And Octavia will understand. In time.”

He finally looks up at her again. His expression still pained. “I hope you’re right.”

Bellamy looks over at the waterfall. The sun shining just right, and a rainbow appears out of the turbulent water. He reaches out and touches the hand that’s resting on his arm and nods towards the waterfall. He hears a small gasp. She squeezes his arm, and he squeezes her hand back. “It’s a rainbow!”

“It’s a rainbow.” He says, looking over at her and seeing a look of pure joy on her face.

Clarke doesn’t ask about Octavia and the mark again until they’ve filled the water bottles and are heading back through the forest, carrying them in their arms and backpacks. 

“You said the Grounder is Octavia’s match?”

“Yeah.” Bellamy replies. Not much enthusiasm present in his voice.

“But how is that possible?” Clarke looks up at him.

“What do you mean?”

“She has been on the Ark her whole life, and he was down here. How can they be matched?” Clarke’s brow is furrowed.

“I guess distance isn’t a hindrance. And we are the same species.” 

“But...” Clarke brakes off for a moment before continuing, “...what if they’d never met? If she had kept living on the Ark and he on the ground. If they were never going to meet, would they still have been matched? What if someone’s match is thousands of miles away. How are they ever supposed to meet?” Clarke looks worried now. Like she’s speaking for herself, not in general any more.

“I think that’s where we’re supposed to believe fate plays in.” Bellamy gives her a soft smile. “Maybe we were all supposed to come to the ground at this moment in time, and Octavia was supposed to meet Lincoln,” Bellamy tried to suppress a small wince before continuing, “and maybe someone will find their match, even if they’re thousands of miles away, because it’s meant to be.”

“Meant to be. I’m not sure I’m completely on board with that.”

“What do you mean?” Bellamy heart clenches. Will she not believe they are matched, even if she sees his mark? Would she fight it? On the Ark you had to be with your match. And if your match didn’t exist or was dead, you could chose be pared up with another unfortunate soul. But down here... He guesses there are no rules. Just because they share a mark, and fate finds them to be a match, that doesn’t mean she has to be with him. That she wants to be with him.

“What if you don’t like him. Or what if you do and he’s with someone else. What if you think you could really love him, and he’s with someone else?”

“Does he have the mark?” He knows she’s talking about Finn. His hands grabs the handles on the bottles a bit tighter.

“No.”

“Then he isn’t your match. You don’t need to get your heart broken over him.”

“It already is.”

“Clarke...”

“Don’t...” She speeds up, clearly not wanting to continue their conversation. And he wants to punch Spacewalker again.

 


	4. Chapter 4

The Ark has given Clarke the location of a bunker to scope out. Maybe it’s a safe place to live. Maybe there are supplies. She needs someone to come with her on this venture, and she asks him.

It’s a good excuse to get away from the camp before the Ark comes down. Octavia clearly doesn't want him around anymore, and there are more than enough people at camp to look after her. He trusts Clarke with her. He packs extra rations into his backpack before leaving and realises that this means he’ll have to leave Clarke behind too. She doesn’t know about the mark, so she won’t miss him. He’ll bear it alone. 

They don't find more tents in the bunker, but there are blankets and he finds guns. It gives them a fighting chance against the Grounders. Bellamy opens one of the ration packs and shares with Clarke before starting to teach her how to shoot. The nuts are sweet, and the more he eats, the sweeter they taste.

“Ready to be a badass, Clarke?” He says after hanging a sheet up to use as target practice.

“Look, I’m not gonna fight you on bringing guns back to camp. I know we need them, but don’t expect me to like it.” She loads one of the guns and he finds it kinda hot.

She brings it up to her shoulder, but it’s not quite right. He corrects her stance, touching her shoulder as he does so. Maybe he should tell her before he leaves, maybe she would want him when she knows. Maybe it would comfort her, that her match isn't thousands of miles away.

“Yeah. Hmm...” he shakes his head to clear his thoughts. “It’s good. Now watch and learn.”

He tries to shoot. Twice. But the gun doesn’t shoot. “Still watching...” she says teasingly. “My bullets are duds. Try yours.” He says, letting her get the chance to practice. She needs to be able to defend herself when he's gone. He doesn't know what he'll do if she gets hurt.

She steps in front of him and aims. She hits the sheet not far from the giant X drawn in the middle. It's a good start. He can hear the awe in her voice as she says, “That was amazing.” She turns around to look at him. “Am I horrible for feeling that?”

He smiles and shakes his head. She’s adorable.

He wants to keep practicing, but she wants to discuss all the practical. Where to keep the guns and who has access to them. He slips up when she says he must trust Miller, since he left him in charge of the Grounder, and he says that she should keep Miller close.

“ _I_ should keep Miller close? What’s going on? You’ve been acting weird all day.” She steps in front of him to confront him. He looks over at the backpack filled with rations.

She realises what he’s planning to do. He’s gonna run off.

“I don’t have a choice. The Ark will be here soon.” He feels a bit dizzy.

“So you’re just gonna leave Octavia?”

“Octavia hates me, she’ll be fine.”

“You don’t know wha-”

“I shot the Chancellor! They’re gonna kill me, Clarke. Best case scenario, they lock me up with the Grounder for the rest of my life, and there’s no way in hell I’m giving Jaha the satisfaction.” His head is spinning now. “Keep practicing. I need some air.”

When he gets outside the hallucinations start. He sees Jaha. He sees the 320 people who were sacrificed because he destroyed the radio. He’s a murderer and they remind him. He wants to die. He doesn’t deserve to live. He’s the reason they’re all dead. All of those people.

It takes a while for the hallucinations stop and when they do Dax is standing over him with a rifle pointed at his face. “Nothing personal.” He pulls the trigger, but it’s a dud. 

Someone loads a gun behind Dax. “Put it down, Dax.” Clarke has the rifle pointed at him.

“You should have stayed down there, Clarke. I tried not to kill you, but here you are and Shumway said ‘no witnesses’.”

That’s how Clarke finds out commander Shumway is the mastermind pulling the strings. First on Bellamy, then Dax.

Clarke pulls the trigger on Dax, but it’s a dud too. She manages to run behind a tree before he shoots at her.

Bellamy’s head clears now Clarke is in danger. Nothing is blurry anymore. He needs to protect her. “NOOO!” He gets on his feet faster than he thought possible and tackles Dax to the ground. He hits him hard, but Dax manages to pull Bellamy off him and tries to strangle him with his rifle. When Clarke runs out to get him off Bellamy, and Dax hits her hard in the stomach, Bellamy has a shot. He grabs the big riffle shell case to his right and cuts into Dax’ throat. Dax stumbles back and falls to the ground dead.

Clarke is leaning against a tree, arm clutched around her middle where Dax had hit her. Bellamy makes his way to her and sits down. He gives her knee a squeeze for comfort, before he slumps back against the tree.

“You’re okay” she breathed out, relieved. 

“No... I’m not” he says. He isn’t the person he wanted to be. He isn’t who his mother wanted him to be and he tells her that.

“She raised me to be better, to be good.” Bellamy can’t look at her as he says it.

“Bellamy.” His name is soft on her lips.

“And all I do is hurt people.” He shakes his head. “I’m a monster.” There are so many emotions trapped inside of him, and it’s too much now. Tears fall from his eyes.

“Hey...” Clarke leans closer to him. He looks up at her. “You saved my life today. You may be a total ass half the time... but...” she keeps looking at him with her intense blue eyes “...I need you.”

His heart stops for a moment and he looks up at her slowly. “We all need you. None of us would have survived this place if it wasn’t for you,” she says. He has to look away from her gaze for a moment. It’s too much. Like it’s burning too bright. “You want forgiveness? Fine, I’ll give it to you, you’re forgiven, okay?” He looks back at her now. She knows what he’s done and she forgives him. At least that’s one person on the planet. Perhaps the person it means the most from.

“But you can’t run, Bellamy. You have to come back with me. You have to face it.”

Bellamy challenges her, points out that Clarke won’t face her mom. She knows that. She doesn’t want to face her mom, or any of it. She just wants to keep everyone alive.

“Jaha will kill me when he comes down”

She looks at him with the most convincing expression he has ever seen. She isn’t giving up on him. “We’ll figure something out," she says.

And they do. They have a personal conference call with Chancellor Jaha that same night. Clarke speaks his case and they make a deal with him. Bellamy’s freedom for the name of the person who is really trying to kill the Chancellor.

“Bellamy Blake,” Jaha leans closer to the camera has he looks directly into it. Clarke’s hand reaches under the table and finds Bellamy's. “You’re pardoned for your crimes.”

\----

The patrol routine is up and running smoothly. During the day one pair walks the parameter, but the camp is more fragile at night, so two pairs walk around the camp, making sure nothing or no one dangerous attacks the sleeping teenagers. So far, the most dangerous thing they’ve stopped from entering camp is a bear. It made for a feast that night and its coat is now draped over Miller’s bed. He shot it, he got it.

Not everyone is on the patrol plan. Few of the 100 are too young or to fragile for Bellamy and Clarke to find it responsible to put them on patrol. Two have asked to be exempt from the patrol, one of them being Jasper -still too shaken up about being speared.

That morning, Fox sprained her ankle, making it impossible for her to make the rounds that night. Bellamy steps in to pair up with her assigned partner for the night, Clarke.

“I thought we agreed we shouldn’t patrol together. If anything happened to both of us-” Clarke starts to say, but Bellamy interrupts her “Nothing will happen to us Princess.” He has been looking forward to being alone with her all day.

“We should swap partners with the other patrolling pair. Who is it tonight?”

“It’s Harper and Jones. But they’ve already taken off. It’s gonna be fine Princess.”

They walk through camp and enter the forest. It’s quiet tonight. A few insects are buzzing, but there’s no wind rustling the leaves of the trees.

“Did you see all the moonshine Monty’s cooked up?” Bellamy says. That kid can make alcohol out of anything.

“It’s gonna be one hell of a Unity Day this year. What do we do?”

“Lean back and watch them have a best night they’ve had in years.”

“We can’t leave the camp unprotected. We need to keep the patrol up. Even that night. _Especially_ that night. And we need to remind them of the rules. We can’t have them sneak off into the forest in the middle of the night because they want to... have privacy.”

Bellamy chuckles when he notices the blush on her cheeks. Even in the darkness of the forest it’s visible. “They need this Clarke. You can’t deny that. And I’ll be patrolling. I won’t leave them unprotected.”

Clarke sighs. “I just don’t like having only two people patrolling, when we’re used to having four.”

Bellamy raises an eyebrow. “Two?”

“Do you think _I’ll_ leave them unprotected?”

He shakes his head as he smiles. He wanted her to have the night off too, but now he knows she will never let that happen.

The night is mostly uneventful. Two times they hear rustling in the trees. They’re both fully alert. Bellamy doesn’t notice how he steps slightly in front of Clarke, shielding her from whatever’s out there, but he does. Both times it turns out to be bats.

Towards the end of their patrol Clarke almost trips when he makes her laugh and she misses a rock on the forest floor. He steadies her, and she ends up flush against his chest. He loves the feel of her this close. He should tell her. She might need time to process, but he should tell her.

He brushes a strand of hair off her face and behind her ear. Maybe he should kiss her first and _then_ tell her the truth.

He leans in closer. He can feel her breath on his lips now. He looks her in the eyes, and she looks back. She isn’t stopping him. But something else is. He hears the growl before he hears the branch snapping. His head whips up to see a dog-like animal advancing on them. A coyote has moved up on them without them noticing. They take a few steps back. Bellamy has once again moved in front of Clarke, but the animal is moving faster now.

His hand reaches for his gun, but Clarke has already pulled hers out. She pushes in front of Bellamy, this time she shields him, and pulls the trigger as the animal leaps. 

The coyote falls to the ground and it doesn’t take long until it lays completely still. 

“Good shot,” Bellamy says, still standing behind Clarke.

“Thanks.”

“Looks like lunch tomorrow is gonna be good.”

“Gotta keep our people happy,” she says while looking back at him over her shoulder.

He takes a small step forward, breaching the distance between them. His right hand reaches up to cup her face, as his left hands comes to rest on her mark. This time he doesn’t pause when he leans in to kiss her.

The kiss is gentle but firm. They fit together like two pieces of a puzzle. Her hands move up his chest to rest behind his neck and pull him closer. He’s floating on cloud nine. He never thought a kiss could make him feel this way. When they break away to catch their breath he rests his forehead against hers. He’s smiling from ear to ear. She kissed him back.

She looks back at him, but he doesn’t see the same euphoria on her face that’s on his. Her hands move away from his neck and she takes a step back. Her eyes are averting his now, and she shakes her head before turning around to leave.

“This shouldn’t have happened. This can’t happen.” She moves swiftly through the forest, heading towards the camp. “Clarke!” he shouts after her. He doesn’t think about what else could be out there, what could be heading his way now after his shouting. “Stop! Clarke! Come back!” But she doesn’t. He takes two hurried steps, but almost trips over the coyote. Clarke would already be back in the camp now. He decides not to chase after her and wake the whole camp. Instead he picks up the coyote, slings it over his shoulders, and walks back to camp.

\----

He doesn’t see Clarke all day. After their patrol the sun is about to rise and he sleeps all morning. He expects she’s doing the same. They roast the coyote for lunch, but he doesn’t see her then. He thinks he sees Raven walk off with two plates to the drop ship, but Harper comes up to him, admires the pelt by his side, and asks him about how they killed the animal, before he can follow her Raven.

When the pelt was removed and Bellamy made sure it would be saved for Clarke. It’s her first kill and even if she isn’t nostalgic or doesn’t need an extra blanket, it’s her kill and she decides where it goes. 

He works hard all afternoon. They need more wood for the fires and he’s become good with the axe by now. The sun is high on the sky and Bellamy removes his shirt. It’s a hot day and he savours the small breeze. He doesn’t see when Clarke goes to get water at the basin. He doesn’t see her pause as she notices him. He doesn’t see how she looks at his bare torso, his ripped muscles moving as he works. She studies him, letting her mind wander. He doesn’t see as she shakes her head softly, gets her water, and hurries back into the drop ship.

He wants to see her, to talk to her, to let her know what’s really going on between them. She needs to know now. He won’t let her push herself away from him without knowing what he knows.

She isn’t in the med bay. He asks Octavia if she’s seen her, but she says she hasn’t for a few hours. Neither has Miller. He finds Raven by the water basin.

“She went down to the river,” Raven says, hands on her hips. “I think she wanted privacy.”

“Thanks Reyes,” Bellamy says heading for the river.

He sees her sitting on the patch of grass they sat on not too long ago. She hears him coming, whipping her head around to see who, or what, is approaching. Her hand reaches for her gun as she turns her head. Pride swells up in Bellamy’s chest. She might not like guns, but that doesn’t stop her from using them to defend herself.

When Clarke sees it’s him, she let her hand fall back down to rest on her knee and she looks back towards the waterfall.

He plops down next to her, but she doesn’t acknowledge his presence. 

“Clarke...” Bellamy begins, looking at at her. “You need to know-”

“It’s fine Bellamy. Don’t worry about it.” She interrupts, finally looking up at him before she gets up to leave.

“Clarke-”

“I said it’s fine!” Her back is turned away from him, but she has stopped waking. “I’m not gonna flutter my eyelashes at you. I know it didn’t mean anything.”

He gets up fast and moves to her. He touches her arm and turns her around. His leans down, and his mouth catching hers in an unyielding kiss. His lips are moving slowly as he pours everything into the kiss.

When they break apart he says, “It meant something to me.”

She gaps and takes a step back. “It’s not a good idea.” Her eyes are still on his.

“It will work out fine,” he says, but she shakes her head.

“It’s not a good idea,” she says, as he takes a step closer to her. She’s still out of reach.

“Don’t you feel it?” He knows she feels it too, and it’s confirmed when she averts her eyes, looking anywhere but at him. He takes another step towards her and reach for her arms, stoking from her shoulders down. His hands rest on her upper arms, his thumbs stroking soothing patterns.

“I can’t!” she shouts at him, shaking his hands off.

“Why?! What are you so afraid of?!” His voice is now raised too. 

“I can’t get my heart broken again over someone who isn’t my match!” Her eyes widen at her confession. So does his.

She turn around to leave again, but he needs her to know.

“That won’t happen,” he says softly.

She lets out a huff of air, it’s almost a snort. “And why is that?” she says with a sad voice.

“I have a mark on my hip,” Bellamy says. Clarke is completely still, he finally has the chance to let her know. “Two arrows, facing opposite directions.” She gasps and turns around. Her eyes flash to the place his mark is hidden. Bellamy lifts up his shirt, removes his gun, and uncovers his mark for her.

She moves forward, breaching the distance between them in two long strides. Her hands come up to his head and pulls his head down to hers. Her lips are on his, moving softly butdetermined. He sighs and she deepens the kiss.

The gun is still in Bellamy’s hand, and it’s now pressed against Clarke’s back as he holds her close. His left hand moves her hair out of her face, before it settles on the side of her head, his thumb at her jaw, his fingers in her hair.

She’s soft against him. He wants to stay like this forever. That’s until she moans and his desire for her is intensifies. 

When they break apart for air, he moves down her throat, kissing a fine line to her collarbone. She sighs his name. He’s straining again his jeans now.

His left hand moves under the hem of her shirt, touching the skin of her hip. He feels like an electric current runs through his fingertips when he grazes her mark. She sucks in a breath. She feels it too.

His lips moves back from her throat to her lips.

“Clarke,” he says between kisses, ”I want you,” another kiss, “so badly,” another kiss “I need you.”

She moves back, and Bellamy almost panics. _Did he say too much?_

She takes his hand, pulling him with her as she lies down on the grass. He nestles in between her legs and places his gun by their side. 

Clarke leans up and pulls her shirt over her head. Her beautiful round breasts spill out of the small bra -the Ark’s repurposing system doesn’t always insure the best fit.

Bellamy licks his lips as she moves to lie back down, her shirt now thrown to the side, her blonde hair spread out on the grass behind her. She’s smiling now and she looks like a goddess. He can’t stop staring at her, admiring her beauty.

“Damn, Princess. You’ve been holding out on me”

“Come here,” she giggles, reaching for him, bringing his lips back to hers with her fingers in his hair.

The next time they break away fro air, Clarke moves to pull his shirt off. He helps her, pulling it off the rest of the way and throwing it to the side.

Clarke bites her lip and moves her hands over his abdomen. Her fingers are soft against his firm muscles. They move down to his mark, touching them, studying them closely. 

“I can’t believe it’s you,” she says, “How long have you known?”

He leans down to kiss the mount of her right breast. “Since we found Jasper in that tree.” He says as he moves to the other breast. “Your shirt rode up when I pulled you up from that trap.” His left hand now caresses the place where her mark is located.

She takes his head between her hands, pulling his face up to look him in the eyes. “Why didn’t you say anything sooner? I’ve keep my distance for so long. If I’d only known... Why?”

“I couldn’t. You were with Finn. You were happy. I just wanted you to be happy. Even if it hurt me.” Bellamy looks away, but Clarke won’t let him. She pulls his face up a bit more, indicating that she wants him to look at her. He does.

“You’re too self-sacrificing for your own good,” Clarke says and kisses him, “What happened to that take-what-I-want attitude you had when you came down to Earth?”

He smiles as he says, “I don’t play with emotions.” He sighs. “First I was in denial. I couldn’t possibly want _The Princess._ ” He shakes his head, astonished at his own stubbornness. “Then I was jealous at Finn, but I also wanted what was best for you, and you had chosen him. You were happy with him. And I... I didn’t deserve you.”

“Bellamy! Don’t say that.”

“It’s true. I didn’t. Not then. A lot has happened since.”

“It certainly has.” She pulls him down for a scorching kiss. Her hands move up his back to his shoulders and pulls him closer. His body is flush against hers. He knows she can feel his excitement now.

She wiggles her hips and he moans as the motion creates exquisite friction for his hard length. She sighs into his mouth, continuing the ministrations with her tongue on his. 

“More, Bell, more” she sighs as he moves down her body, leaving a trail of wet kisses in his wake. “Patience, Princess.” He only pays attention to her bra-clad breasts for a short time, before moving further down. The trail of kisses ends at the mark on her hip. She moans as he kisses the two silver arrows, “Bell,” she breathes.

He stops to look up at her as his fingers move to the button of her jeans. She nods and sighs as he moves the jeans down her legs. He kisses his way up her legs, starting at her ankle. She never thought it would feel so good to be kissed at the back of her knees.

The small sounds Clarke lets out as he kisses his way up her legs are the hottest sounds he’s ever heard. She breaths hard, moans, and gasps as he makes it to the inside of her thigh.

He can smell her now. She’s turned on for him. His jeans feel even tighter now. His fingers move to the hem of her underwear. He barely has the chance to look up at her for conformation before she hums out in affirmation and says “Please, Bellamy.”

He shifts her underwear down her legs and throws them to the pile with their other clothes. He can see her wetness waiting for him. He kisses her thigh as his finger starts to move through her slick folds. She moans at his touch, her legs spreads further apart. 

He moves closer to her, his finger finding her entrance and slowly pushing inside, as his tongue licks at her clit, tasting her for the first time. They moan in unison. 

Clarke’s fingers in his hair pulls at the strands as she’s being brought closer and closer to her release. Bellamy adds another finger and alternates the patterns he’s drawing with his tongue on her clit. Her gasps are getting more frequent and her moans louder. His name falls from her lips in sighs as she tumbles over the edge, her walls pulsing around his fingers, even more wetness pooling between her legs.

He looks up from her thighs. She’s looking back down at him through hooded eyes. He licks the rest of her juices off his lips and wipes the rest away from his face with the back of his arm.

He moves slowly up her body, he kisses her breasts spilling out of the small cups. They help each other to remove the bra, her stunning breasts finally bare to him. He takes his time with the nubs, kissing, sucking, and biting until they’re hard and wet with his saliva. He kisses her neck before coming face to face with her again. She pulls him down to her lips. He’s certain she can taste herself on his mouth. He didn’t think he could be more turned on, but he could.

Their kiss deepens again, and it isn’t long until Clarke’s hands moves to the button of Bellamy’s jeans. She looks up at him, and he nods. She pulls the zipper down and pushes the jeans off his hips. Bellamy removes them the rest of the way, kicking them off, making them land somewhere behind them.

“Clarke. I need you.”

“Bellamy, please.”

She moves her hand past the waistband of his underwear, feeling the hardness of his length. He moans at the touch, his head dropping to her nook of her shoulder. “Fuck, Clarke.”

When her thumb moves over his tip and spreads the pre-cum around, he knows he needs them to move forward soon, before he comes on the spot.

“Please Clarke...” he sighs into her shoulder. She gives his length one last squeeze before moving her hands to drag his last piece of clothes off his body. He kicks it off, leaving them naked with each other.

She spreads her legs further and waits for him to take the next step.

“Are you sure?” he asks. He almost winches at his own words. It’s cliché, but he needs to make sure. He doesn’t want to mess this up.

She hums before saying, “Yes Bellamy. I’m sure.” She reaches down to guide him to her entrance. He pushes his way inside slowly. She’s so turned on and wet, he slides right in. He still waits a moment for her to get used to him inside her before he moves. His movements are slow at first, but she spurs him on. Before long, her legs are wrapped around him, her hips slapping against his as they’ve worked themselves into a frantic pace. 

The sounds they make are the hottest he’s ever heard. Not only their panting, moaning, and muttering of each other’s names, but also the sound of their bodies slamming together, the sticky sound of the the wetness between her thighs. When he feels himself getting closer, he moves his hand to where they’re joined, finding her clit with his fingers. Their kissing is sloppy now, their breaths erratic. She moans his name and he moans hers. He comes before her, but pulls her with him over the edge. He’d be damned if he doesn’t make her come too.

He’s still inside her when he regains his senses a few moments later. He makes a move to slide off her, but she hold him closer. “Not yet,” she whispers against his neck.

When they’re ready, he moves to her side. Lying on his back, Bellamy pulls her half on top of him, her head resting on his chest as his fingers traces patterns down her back, to her hip, down to the mark.

“How long do you think we can keep it a secret before the whole camp knows?”

“Who said anything about keeping it a secret?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading this!  
> It's been... 7 years? since I've last written fanfiction. I hope it's not too noticeable.   
> If you enjoyed it, please leave kudos and/or a comment. It would mean the world to me, as I'm still not sure if I think this is good or not.  
> Thank you  
> xx


	5. Epilogue

“You what?!” Clarke springs up from the madras she’s just shared with Bellamy.

“I didn’t,” Bellamy says, already missing the warmth of her body against his. “I didn’t wait. I never said I waited.” Bellamy moves up to stand on his feet too.

“I knew you were with girls when we first landed, but I didn't see you with any later on."

"You were busy. And I wasn't with that many."

"But you _knew!_ ” 

Bellamy moves closer to Clarke. “If you don’t keep your voice down, you’ll wake up the whole camp!” Bellamy whisper-shouts at her. He takes a final step, now close enough to touch her. His hands find her arms, moving his thumbs in soothing patterns.

“You _knew!”_ She says as she pushes at his chest. He stumbles back. Her voice is lower, but the force behind it is just as powerful as before.

“You were with Finn.”

“I _didn’t_ know! See the difference there?” She’s furious. 

“You were happy running off alone with Finn.” Bellamy's hands clench into fists.

“You don’t know if I was happy!” She pokes him in the chest with her finger. She raises her voice again, “You could have said something!”

“You wouldn’t have wanted me then!” 

“How do you know?” Clarke retorts.

“Would you?” Bellamy says, but Clarke looks down. It takes a moment for her to say, “I don’t know. But things would have been different if you’d just told me.” Her voice is quiet now.

“You were in love with _him._ It wouldn’t have changed anything.” Bellamy says, he runs his fingers through his hair in frustration.

“It would have changed _everything!_ ” 

“When you found out, you would have sought him out for comfort, because you would be too upset about the thought of being matched with the big bad dictator of camp!”

“You have _no idea_ what I would and wouldn’t have done!” Clarke screams at him.

“Keep your voice down!”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Clarke shouts one last time before turning to leave the drop ship. “I need some air.”

Bellamy takes a step towards her.

“Don’t even think about following me.”

\----

She’s been gone for an hour when he decides to look for her. It’s in the middle of the night and he doesn’t like the idea of her being alone outside at this hour. There might be a patrol around camp, but he wouldn’t put it past her to sneak around them and walk outside alone. Especially with the mood she is in.

He finds her outside the parameter, as he half expected. She’s in the clearing with the glowing butterflies, but she isn’t looking at them. She’s sitting on the ground. Her legs up in front of her, her arms resting on her knees, her head buried in the circle of her arms. She doesn’t hear him approach her. He doesn’t like that. She should have her guard up at all times.

“You’re not supposed to be out here after curfew.” He says, still standing a bit away. He startles her. Her first instinct is to reach for her gun, but her hand slides off it again when she realise it’s Bellamy.

“Neither are you.” She looks up at him, but still hugs her legs to her chest.

Bellamy walks closer to her and asks, “May I sit?”

“I don’t know,” she replies, so he doesn’t. “I told you not to follow me.”

“I know. I was worried.”

“You don’t think I can take care of myself?” Clarke says. She’s still out for blood.

“I know you can. But that doesn’t stop me from worrying.”

Clarke looks up at the butterflies now, studying their movements, the soft, soothing routes they fly. Bellamy leans back against a tree.

“Why did you sleep with them? After you found out. Why?” She says softly. He can hear the hurt in her voice.

“Anger. Jealousy. Denial. Take your pick.”

“I just...” she takes a deep breath. “I just don’t understand why you didn’t tell me.”

Bellamy takes a deep breath, about to say something, but stops himself before a word leaves his lips. He looks up at the beautiful glowing butterflies, finding peace in their soothing movements. 

She’s looking at him now, studying his face. He sighs and looks back at her. He knows she can see how vulnerable he looks when he tells her, “I was scared.”

Her voice is soft. The angry edge gone. “We’re matched. Why would you be scared?”

He lets out at huff of air. There’s a sad smile on his lips when he says, “What if you fought it? If you didn’t want to be with me so strongly you’d fight it? This is Earth. We don’t live by Ark rules anymore. We’re free, and I feared what you’d do with that freedom.”

“You’re an idiot.”

“I know.” He chuckles as he moves over to her and reaches his hand out to her. “Will you come back to camp with me now?”

“Okay,” she says and gives him her hand. He pulls her to her feet. “But I’m still angry with you.” She doesn’t let go of his hand.

“I know.” He squeezes her hand, happy she isn’t giving up on him. “I’ll make it up to you.”

“I know,” she says and squeezes his hand back.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to add this epilogue a day after I posted the fic. I feel like it does Clarke more justice. Commenters on the main fic were right, Clarke would be angry with him for sleeping with more girls after he found out. I'm not too good with conflict and anger *i just want everyone to get along* but I hope you also think it's more canon for her to react like this, than just shrug and move along.
> 
> Please feel free to leave kudos and a comment. You have no idea what that would mean to me. xx

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you enjoyed this.  
> Please leave kudos/comments -they are the sustenance of fic-writers.
> 
>  
> 
> You can find me on tumblr here:  
> The 100 blog: <http://autumnkru.tumblr.com>  
> Main blog (Marvel, Star Wars, The 100): <http://reytheblakes.tumblr.com>


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